The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answers on 21st October 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked His Majesty’s Government whether the plan to allocate additional Official Development Assistance (ODA) for (1) 2024–25, and (2) 2025–26, to compensate for the share of ODA being spent on refugees in the United Kingdom.
Continue reading “Bishop of Southwark asks about official development assistance spending”The Bishop of Norwich received the following written answer on 19th February 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Norwich asked His Majesty’s Government, following the Autumn Statement 2023, what assessment they have made of the suitability of the economic climate to enable them to return Official Development Assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross national income.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con, Treasury): The government remains committed to returning to a target of spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA when, on a sustainable basis, the government is not borrowing for day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling.
The Bishop of Leicester spoke in a debate on the impact of climate change on developing nations on 11th January 2024, highlighting the relationship between debt and dealing with climate change:
The Lord Bishop of Leicester: My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, for the opportunity to debate this hugely significant subject. I too am looking forward to the maiden speech by my right reverend friend the Bishop of Winchester, who has real expertise in this area.
When it comes to thinking about the impact of climate change on developing nations, the injustices at play are twofold. First is the fact that those nations that are being and will yet be most affected by climate change are those that have contributed least to the crisis. Secondly, much of the funds that fuelled our Industrial Revolution, wherein were sown the seeds of climate change, were generated by extracting and exploiting the resources of many of those regions, most devastatingly, of course, through the transatlantic chattel slave trade.
Our moral debt is as great as the climate emergency we face, so I was pleased to see that the Government’s international development White Paper, published in November, included “tackling climate change” in its title. I was also most encouraged to read the Government advocating for a move away from donor-recipient models of aid towards partnerships built on mutual respect, putting greater value on the voice, perspectives and needs of developing nations, as well as supporting local leadership. The paper hearteningly states:
“We will engage with humility and acknowledge our past”.
Continue reading “Bishop of Leicester calls for reconsideration of debt to help developing nations combat climate change”The Bishop of Gloucester spoke in a debate on climate change and migration on 14th September 2023, outlining the underlying issues of poverty and the need for collaboration across Europe to address ongoing crises:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, it is a delight to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. I am grateful to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, for bringing this debate and raising this important issue. It touches on two of the primary challenges that we face in the 21st century; as we have heard, they are deeply connected. We heard astounding statistics, such as that, by 2050, perhaps 200 million people will be displaced due to climate change.
I was reminded of many of the weather events of this summer in Europe. We saw about 19,000 people evacuated from Rhodes due to wildfires; there were images of holidaymakers fleeing but being given refuge and hospitality by local people. We saw temperature red alerts and the hottest June on record globally. This is the climate crisis close up and, at the most basic level, it involved the movement of people and the support of other people—a small snapshot of a much larger global issue.
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester stresses need for international cooperation in climate change debate”On 4th September 2023, the House of Lords debated the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:
On 30th March 2023 the House of Lords held a short debate on a Motion from Lord Naseby: To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce new economic policies to address the challenges of climate change in developing countries, particularly those that are members of the Commonwealth.
The Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, for tabling this Question. In his travelogue, he mentioned, to my alarm, the areas for which I am directly responsible—I suppose because they could not go anywhere else—notably, the Falkland Islands, Antarctica, Sri Lanka and Bermuda; I do not know what is going to happen to Kent.
The OECD’s most recent States of Fragility report found that, in 2022, 23% of the world’s population were living in fragile contexts, often linked to climate change, but 73% of the world’s extreme poor were. This figure is projected to rise to 86% of the world’s poor on the lowest incomes by 2030. For the Anglican Communion, within 165 countries over 150 of them are affected by such changes.
Continue reading “Archbishop highlights increased risk of climate change-driven conflict and migration”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question about how international climate finances are allocated during a debate on the government’s COP27 Statement on 15th November 2022:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, is the Minister able to confirm that the pledges for international climate finance are not being taken from the ODA (Official Development Assistance) budgets?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about sources of international climate finance”
Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from an MP on 8th July 2022:
Ben Bradshaw MP (Lab): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Low Income Communities Funding, if the Commissioners will ask the Bishop of Truro to pass on the benefits from that funding to mission in Truro’s lowest income communities, such as by reducing their parish share, as opposed to leaving it to underwrite the diocesan deficit.
Continue reading “Church Commissioners Written Answers: Church Development”On 10th June 2021, the House of Lords voted on two deferred motions relating to an amendment to the Town and Country Planning Order. A Bishop took part in both votes:
The Bishop of Newcastle asked a question on the government’s assessment of a report on investment in the North of England on 23rd February 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle [V]: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Centre for Policy Studies A Northern Big Bang: Unleashing Investment in the North, published on 14 February.
Lord Greenhalgh (Con, DHCLG): The Government welcome the contribution made by the Centre for Policy Studies report. Levelling up the north of England is a key priority for this Government, and the coronavirus crisis has made it more important than ever that the Government continue to drive forward progress on our promise to deliver real, positive change in the north.
Continue reading “Bishop of Newcastle asks about investment in the North of England”
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